Five Free Apps » social bookmarking

Using Automation to Blog & Social Network More Efficiently

Brian Mongold — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:15:00 +0000

If you’re like me, you need to be as efficient as possible with your blogging and social networking. There’s just not enough hours in the day to take care of your blog, your social networks and every day life. Luckily, there are tools and methods to make you more efficient.

1. Automatically Have New Blog Posts Tweeted on Twitter
Twitter Feed lets you take all the work out of posting your new link on Twitter. I use Twitter Feed & it works perfectly for me. You can customize the intro. As an example, I use “New from Eazy Cheezy” & it automatically adds the post title and shortened URL to Twitter for each new blog post.

2. Automatically Have Twitter Updates Posted on Facebook
The instructions below are simple to follow. If you blog and use Twitter and Facebook, you can have each new post automatically post to Twitter (see 1), then Twitter will automatically feed it to Facebook. If you don’t blog, you can still use this method to update your status in both places with one entry. Link Your Twitter Account to Facebook

3. Automatically Have New Blog Posts Updated on Facebook
If you don’t want to use the Blog to Twitter to Facebook method (See 1 and 2), you can just have new blog posts automatically updated on Facebook by following these simple steps. All your Facebook friends will be able to see your new Blog posts. I’m using the Mirror Blog App within Facebook (below).

4. Automatically Have New Blog Posts Updated on LinkedIn

You now have the ability to have your blog posts updated on LinkedIn without even visiting LinkedIn. Simply click BlogLink, then choose to have your posts “Display on my Profile” and “Display on LinkedIn Homepage,” then click “Add Application.”

5. Update Your Status for Multiple Social Networks in One Place

Send your message to Ping.fm via SMS, MMS, IM, e-mail, or from a choice of 30 3rd party apps (i.e. Facebook), then have your posts automatically posted on your choice of 30 social networking sites. (i.e. Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Delicious, etc)

6. Submit Stories to Multiple Social Network Sites articles from One Place
PostToaster lets you save time by automating social bookmarking, which includes an option to select do-follow sites. Click and drag the lion logo & drop into your toolbar. You can automatically submit articles to up to 70+ social networking sites.

7. Let Readers Subscribe & Read your Posts Without Visiting Your Site
FeedBurner is an excellent tool that lets you display RSS & E-mail Subscription chicklets on your blog to make it easier for people to subscribe to your content & read it from a reader of their choice. Using the Publicize tab within Feedburner, I created a RSS Feed Chicklet & E-mail Subscription below. Feedburner also provides in depth stats for your readers and content & does so much more. Learn more with Integrating Feedburner with Blogspot Blogs and Feedburner Support.

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8. Use a Widget That Automatically Discovers Similiar & Recommended Sites
Scoutle connects blogs by allowing you to create a personal Scout. This Scout walks across the Net & searches for other Scouts that are alike. This way, Scouts can find, promote, connect and rate blogs. Submit your content to Scoutle & they’ll do the rest of the work & find similar blogs & add your blog to other widgets using blogs.

9. Enable Readers to Share Content in Any Way They Want in a Simple Way
ShareThis is a powerful button to simplify sharing for your readers. If they like an article, they can click “ShareThis” & have the option to email the post to their friends or submit it to several popular social bookmarking sites.

10. Give Readers A Simple Way to Contact You
Kontactr is a one-click free contact form service. Cut down your spam & protect your email address by using the highly secure contact form. You can embed the form on your site or provide a direct link.

11. Reply to Blog Comments by E-mail
Intense Debate is an excellent way to more efficiently respond to comments on your blog. You can respond directly from your e-mail & it will automatically post the response on your blog. It has many more features that you can checkout in my review.

More Ways to Simplify
12. Simplify Print Screens to Add Content to Your Blog with Fireshot (Firefox Add-on)
13. Find Bad Links on Your Page, The Easy Way with LinkChecker
14. Automatically Generate Graphic Feed Signatures for RSS Feeds with Feedsr

Hopefully these methods will help you be more efficient in blogging and social networking. The key is to have a balance. Don’t over-automate. One example of over-automation that I’ve seen is those who use automated responses in Twitter when you add them as a friend. I don’t know about you, but that turns me off a bit. It’s also important to remember to still visit the social networking sites to personally respond to messages & have a presence. These are all just tools to help. Did I miss any? Do you have any thoughts on using automation?

Best Tools for Finding Bookmarks

Brian Mongold — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 03:11:00 +0000

I often have readers ask me how I find the tools and resources that are posted. Having a site that’s purpose is to find the best resources on the web requires some efficient and powerful search tools. There are countless search engines & tools available, but I wanted to share 5 tools that have been the most effective for me.

1. Delicious – If you’ve been reading Eazy Cheezy, you’ve probably observed that I use Delicious multiple times a day. I keep an eye on the Delicious Popular, but also conduct keyword searches and often times browse through hundreds of sites under individual keywords. Quite a few buried treasures on Delicious.

2. Advanced Google Search – No other search engine compares to Google in my opinion. I like to narrow my searches down by using the Advanced feature. There are many other Google custom search engines, but I usually just stick with this one unless searching under specific categories, such as Education.

3. PopURLs – This tool is quite handy as it displays popular entries on Delicious, Digg, Stumbled Upon, Youtube and so many more sites.

4. Digg – I’ve become a hardcore Digger & have integrated myself into the community. Since I typically read so many Digg stories, I have found quite a few nice bookmarks in both new submissions & by using the search within Digg.

5. Popacular – Sure, it’s basically the popular section of Delicious displayed, but I use Popacular to break down the ranked popularity of Delicious posts by hour, day, week, month and all-time.

Have you used any of the sites above? What site do you use to find information you need? As always, I’d love to hear from you.

8 All-in-one Social Bookmarking Widgets – Myspace, Facebook, Digg, Twitter, Etc.

Brian Mongold — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:24:00 +0000

I often see a wide variety of social bookmarking widgets that enable readers to save and share your site. I’ve always wondered where to find some of the cool buttons and badges I’ve came across.

Recently, I’ve been on a pursuit to find the best social bookmarking widgets and pulling them all together on this entry. It’s all about options. For this entry, I chose the all-in-one type badges. It’s all about having options.

1. Badged – Type in your blog name, URL and choose which badges you want.

2. Addthis – Choose whether you want the bookmarking or the feed button, select your button, type in your feed and grab your button. You can choose whether to have it drop down or not as well.

3. Add to Any – Choose a subscribe or share button, pick your button and type in your URL.

4. BlogBadge – Find your user names and IDs for each of your profiles.

5. Clearspring Launchpad – With Launchpad, you’ll first need to register for a free account. You can modify the widget settings to your liking once you register.

6. Shoutlist Icons - This is another badge, similiar to Blogbadge, which is on Widgetbox. Replace the information with your own, choose how many columns and rows you want and get your widget.

7. Ultimate Social Bookmark – Another Widgetbox badge. It’s a less visually appealing bookmarking tool, but one that could also be very useful.

8. FlashDen Social Bookmark Buttons for Flash – ($5) I didn’t try this out, due to it being $5, but I just wanted to list it as an alternative. It’s a pretty fancy flash badge, but I’ll stick with free.

If you have any other great all-in-one social bookmarking badges or buttons, please do share. I’ll continue to add to the listing.